Label activator drum



Aug. 18, 1970 A. E. WHITECAR I LABEL ACTIVATOR DRUM 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 9, 1966 Aug. 18, 1970 A. E. WHRTECAR 3,

LABEL ACTIVATOR DRUM Filed March 9, 1966 5 SheetsSheet 2 INVENTOR ALTEN E. WHITECAR ATTORNEYS Aug. 18, 1970 A. E. WHITECAR 3,524,788

' LABEL ACTIVATOR DRUM Filed March 9. 1966 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 0 IO 0 o o 0 o (f o 0 o o o O o O O y D O 0 I60 ll:- 98 Q i00 F l G. 4.

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INVENTOR ALTEN. E. WHITECAR ATTORNEYS Mum United States Patent Oflice 3,524,788 LABEL ACTIVATOR DRUM Alten E. Whitecar, Westville, N1, assignor to Smith Kline & French Laboratories, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Mar. 9, 1966, Ser. No. 532,946 Int. Cl. 1865c 9/00 U.S. Cl. 156-499 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A heated rotating activating and transfer drum has openings adjacent the periphery and parallel to the axis of the drum and openings extending from these openings to the periphery of the drum. A vacuum system conneeted to the aforesaid openings provides for retaining on and releasing a label from the drum. The periphery of the drum has a recessed portion adapted to prevent the activation by heat of a portion of a label spanning to the recessed portion. Advantageously the drum has at least one movable segment to vary the area of the recessed portion. Valve means are available to regulate the number of openings extending from the periphery which are in communication with the vacuum means.

This invention relates to a rotating label activating drum, for activating adhesive on a label and transferring the label to a container at a label applying station.

Broadly, it is known to employ a rotating label activating and transfer drum. This invention is particularly concerned with providing such a drum which will activate only a preselected portion of the adhesive on the back of a label. When it is desired to have an insert interposed between a label and its associated container, it is necessary to secure two portions of the label to the container while having an intervening portion of the label which is not adhered to the container. The drum of this invention performs this function. The invention and related prior art will be fully clarified by the following description read in conjunction with the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view, partially broken away, of a drum in accordance with the invention associated with other elements of a labeling machine;

FIG. 2 is an elevation of the drum of FIG. 1 and associated apparatus taken on the plane indicated by the line 2--2 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the rear adhesive bearing face of a label employed with the drum of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a front perspective view, partially broken away, of the drum of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 is a plan view, partially broken away of the drum of FIG. 4.

Referring to FIG. 1, a series of bottles 2 are carried by a conveyor 4 with a helical groove roller 6 being employed to space the bottles 2. A label 8 having a thermo-activatable adhesive coating 8a on its rear face which can be activated by heat (FIG. 3) is transferred from a drum 10 to each bottle 2. An insert 9 such as for example a circular is interposed between the label 8 and bottle 2 and then the label 8 is Wrapped around insert 9 and secured to bottle 2 by means of a belt 12 which has a reach adjacent conveyor 4 moving in the same direction as the conveyor but at a more rapid rate.

A continuous strip of label 16 (FIGS. 1 and 2) is advanced by driven roller indicated at 18 which is biased against strip 16 by an extension spring 20. Strip 16 is guided by a cut-off platform 22. The strip 16 is severed to provide the individual labels 8- by a knife 24 carried by a pivoted member 26 which in turn is actuated by a lever 28 to which it is pivotally connected. Intermittent 3,524,788 Patented Aug. 18, 1970 operation of drive roller 18 advances strip 16 the appropriate distance beyond knife 24 with one edge of the advance portion of strip 16 being supported by a bar 32. Knife 24 is then actuated and the cut olf label 8 is picked up by transfer arm 34 (FIG. 2) which is connected to an oscillating shaft 36 and to a vacuum pump (not shown) by a line 38. Arm 34 has vacuum openings 40 to provide for the holding of label 8 as it is transferred to intermittently stepping member 44.

Member 44 has an arcuate label carrying portion 45 provided with bosses 46 which in turn are provided with openings 48 in communication with a source of suction through manifold member 50, passages (not shown) in shaft 52 and a valve plate-manifold system 54 which is connected to air line 56 and vacuum lines 58 and 60, respectively.

As thus described, all of the apparatus is old in the art. Reference may be had for example, to Von Hofe et al. Pats. 2,703,660 issued Mar. 8, 1955 and 2,525,741 issued Oct. 10, 1950 which broadly disclose the apparatus described above with the exception of the supplying of a continuous strip of labels, the cutting off of individual labels and the transfer of these labels to stepping member 44. This structure is nevertheless old in the art and no claim thereto is made herein. It should also be observed that precut individual labels can equally Well be supplied to drum 10 by mechanism fully disclosed in the said Von l-lofe et al. patents the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

The invention involved here is embodied in drum 10 which is a modification of the label activating drum 22 disclosed in Von Hofe et al., Pat. 2,703,660, the said drum 22 being a modification of drum B disclosed in Von Hofe et al. Pat. 2,525,741.

Referring to FIG. 4, a carbon composition ring 62 rotates with drum 10 and faces against a fixed valve plate 64, ring 62 and plate 64 being identical with ring 81 and plate 84 of Pat. No. 2,703,660.

Drum 10 is provided with a plurality of spaced ribs 68 (only one being shown) having cut out portions 70 to accommodate bosses 46. Ribs 68 act as an abutment for the leading edge of a label. Drum 10 has a plurality of openings 72 adjacent the periphery of the drum and running parallel to the axis of the drum. Openings 72 communicate with openings 74 in ring 62 except leading opening 72 which communicates with an opening 75 in ring 62. A large number of openings 76 lead from the periphery of the drum to each of the openings 72. Here again, as thus described, drum 10 follows the prior art. In each opening 72 there is provided a threaded rod 78 having a right angled head portion 80 for supporting the rod on the upper face of the drum. A valve member 84 of a diameter to slide snugly within opening 72 is threadably secured to rod 78 to permit it to be located anywhere along the length of the rod. Best results are achieved when valve members 84 are positioned to block off all of the openings 76 above those involved in holding a label 8.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described. A portion 88 of drum 10 is cut out as best seen in FIG. 4. Three openings 90 in ring 62 which are below cut out portion 88 are each blocked oil with a plug 92. Drum 10 is provided with a movable segment 94 which rides in a vertical groove 96 and is held in the desired position by means of a clamp 98 secured to drum 10 by means of a machine screw 100. Similarly, a pair of segments 102 and 104 are slidably mounted in vertical groove 106 in which they are held respectively in the desired position by clamps 108 and 110, each of which is secured by a machine screw 100. The segments 94, 102 and 104 are in heat conducting relationship with drum 10'.

Each of the segments 94, 102, 104 is provided with OPERATION In operation, a label 8 cut off from strip 16 by knife 24 is picked up by vacuum arm 34 and carried to intermittent stepping member 44 where arm 34 releases the label and it is held by suction openings 48 in bosses 46.

Member 44 then rotates clockwise as viewed in FIG. 1

and transfers the label to drum 10 with the leading edge of the label against rib 68, the suction hold on the label by member 44 being released and the label being held by the suction openings 76 adjacent rib 68. The operation thus far described is conventional. As drum 10 rotates counterclockwise as viewed in FIG. 1 the label 8 as shown in phantom in FIG. 4 spans cut-out portion 88 of drum 10 and the trailing end of the label is engaged by suction openings 116 in segment 102 and by a pair of suction openings 76 on the periphery of the drum.

Since the drum is heated, the portions of the label hearing against the periphery of the drum per se and bearing against segment 102 will be heated by conduction so as to activate the thermo-activatable adhesive on the label. However, there is insufiicient radiation of heat to activate the adhesive which is opposite the cut-out portion 88 of drum 10. Thus, as illustrated in FIG. 3, the end portions 8B and 80 of adhesive are activated leaving unactivated the central portion of adhesive 8D.

As drum 10 rotates to a point adjacent a bottle 2, the leading edge of the label 8 is released and adheres to the bottle with the remainder of the label being released to move along on the conveyor with bottle 2. An insert 9, for example, a circular is now placed between the bottle and label are engaged by belt 12, bottle 2 is rotated clockwise to wrap the label 8 about the bottle and the insert 9 to complete the application of the label to the bottle in a manner to retain insert 9 opposite the non-activated portion 8D of the label 8 so that the insert 9 can be removed at will without disturbing the label.

It will be evident that the segments 94, 102 and 104 will be variously employed depending upon the area of adhesive on the label which it is desired to retain inactive and the desired location of this area. Thus, for example, when it is desired to have a substantially smaller nonactivated area on label 8, segments 94 and 104 can be moved downwardly after releasing clamps 98 and 110 respectively so as to bring the lower faces of the segments into tight contact with ring 62 and elevating the valve members 84 on the rods 78 associated with these segments so as to position them just above the highest opening of each of the segments which abuts the label. The clamps 98 and 110 should then be tightened to hold segments 94 and 104 securely. In this manner substantially more of the adhesive will be activated leaving a smaller non-activated central adhesive portion. Similarly the location of the non-adhesive area can be varied without changing the size thereof by raising segment 102 and lowering segment 94.

It will be understood that the above described embodiment of the invention is simply by way of illustration and is not intended to be limiting.

What is claimed is:

1. In a rotating label activating and transfer drum having means spaced inwardly from the periphery of the drum to heat the periphery of the drum, said drum having openings adjacent the periphery and parallel to the axis of the drum and openings extending from the periphery of the drum to the first mentioned openings, means including avalve plate to provide for said openings a source of vacuum and communication to the atmosphere to provide for the pick up of a label at a label supplying point, transfer of the label and discharge of the label at a label applying station, the improvement comprising the periphery of the drum having a recessed portion adapted to prevent the activation of a portion of a label spanning the recessed portion and at least one movable peripheral segment in heat conducting relationship with the drum to vary the area of said recessed portion and vary the area of label adhesive activated.

2. A device in accordance with claim 1 in which the segment is movable parallel to the axis of the drum and has an opening adjacent its periphery parallel to the axis of the drum and has openings extending from its periphery to its first mentioned opening.

3. A device in accordance with claim 2 having means including valves to limit communication between the valve plate and a predetermined number of said openings extending from the said periphery.

4. A device in accordance with claim 1 having at least two movable peripheral segments in heat conducting relationship with the drum to vary the size or location of the recessed portion.

5. A device in accordance with claim 4 in which the segment is movable parallel to the axis of the drum and has an opening adjacent its periphery parallel to the axis of the drum and has openings extending from its periphery to its first mentioned opening.

6. A device in accordance with claim 5 having means including valves to limit communications between the valve plate and a predetermined number of said openings extending from the said periphery.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,489,837 ll/1949 Von Hofe 156-583 XR 2,525,741 10/1950 Von Hofe et al 156-499 2,680,471 6/1954 Mercer 156--583 2,703,660 3/1955 Von Hofe et al l56364 3,159,521 12/1964 Pechrnann l56499 JOHN T. GOOLKASIAN, Primary Examiner H. F. EPSTEIN, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 156-568 

